Swimming Laps with the Ugly Duckling

Due to some scheduling challenges, my instructor and I decided to move up our
standing appointment from Saturday to Friday in order to ensure that I got two
flights in this week.

Just like earlier, we stayed in
the pattern at Hayward (KHWD) to practice the pattern, approaches and landings.

Today’s interesting complication/oddity was that there was a Temporary Flight
Restriction (TFR) in place in at the airport because the Vice President is in
town. I only heard about it when we listened to the
ATISafter engine start. I probably wasted 3 minutes of engine time, next time
I’ll make sure I listen to the full ATIS before engine start instead of
tuning out after the altimeter information.

For the first time, I needed to deviate from the Controller/Pilot script and
give Hayward Ground a call and ask them if the TFR will affect our desire to
just fly the pattern. With the green light, I request taxi clearance and we
start rolling towards 28L in the Ugly Duckling.

Run-up checks complete, I call Tower requesting 28L for closed traffic (pattern
work), receive clearance, taxi onto runway and then my instructor calls tower
to inform them we’ll be performing an aborted takeoff before properly taking
off. I wasn’t terribly concerned, 28L is huge, so we had plenty of space to
play with. I go full power, we gain some airspeed then abort and veer a bit too
far to the right of center-line. Oops.

Single engine airplanes love to turn left, there are four major
forces that try to turn the plane
left. When you take-off, you’re putting in maximum power and the plane just
wants to turn left. To stay centered when the plane wants to go left, you
have to kick some right rudder in. Thing is, if you remove all that power, say
on an aborted take-off, and don’t pick your big-ass right foot up, you’re going
to veer right. Oops.

I straightened out and we proceeded with a normal take-off roll and rotation as
per usual, and we were quickly back up in the 650ft pattern coming back around
to touch-and-go on 28L.

Unlike previous lessons where we were working in the pattern, this was later in
the day, and with about 11 knots of wind from about 265/275, a 15-20 degree
cross-wind. Another new variable to add into the mix!

We perform a couple touch-and-go’s, some of which are pretty nice, some with
more side-loading than I wanted. After we take-off again tower tells us to
make right closed traffic for 28R, we’re being switched from the giant runway
(28L) to the smaller runway.

No big deal, I’m feeling much more comfortable flying the plane, using
trim more and more to control my
airspeed, a big improvement from the last lesson. On one approach, I roundout
my descent, the airspeed slows, I begin to flare, my upwind (side where the
wind is coming from) wheel gently touches down, a couple seconds pass and then the downwind
wheel gently touches down.

Greased it, except I’m about 5 feet left of
centerline. Damn.

When landing in a cross-wind, it’s not uncommon to have one wheel touchdown
first like that you would use a lower upwind wing to
sideslip into
the cross-wind to maintain center-line. As long as you have the plane’s
momentum going in a straight line, you’re gold.

A few more approaches, some with flaps, some without flaps which required forward
slipping into
the crosswind to lose altitude and airspeed. Using the plane as an airbrake is
pretty fun, and makes for a completely different sound than you’ll normally
hear. I highly recommend them.

On one circuit, I rolled out on my final approach too early, started correcting
and became too focused with my airspeed and power inside the airplane, that I
let us line up on the left edge of the runway. Approaching from that far off
centerline, at less than 100ft from the ground is a bad idea. It’s a sloppy
approach, and an inexperienced pilot might try to save it, which can be
dangerous. The right procedure is to go-around, which is exactly what my
instructor said, and then asked the rhetorical question: “why did I have to
call the go-around?”

An important lesson learned on my part, if I exercise poor judgement to the
point that my instructor has to exercise his good judgement, that’s a Bad
Thing™.

Another couple touch-and-gos and we’re done for the day. My side-loading has
gone away (as far as I’ve perceived it), my roundout and landing flare have
improved and I’m starting to get a feel for what looks and sounds like a
good approach.

“Hey! You know how to land an airplane!” my instructor says as we slow to taxi
speed and leave the runway.

The solo flight is arguably one of the biggest milestones pilot will have. For
the first time he or she will be alone in an airplane, flying around, without
adult supervision.

Provided I continue to demonstrate that I can safely perform the
necessary flight maneuvers and exercise good judgement on bad approaches, I
should be making solo takeoffs/approaches/landings in the next couple lessons.